Lightning Strikes Twice
by baka-neko-fan
Summary: Jake becomes a Controller again, and an outsider witnesses everything. The reaction of this outsider will determine the fate of the Animorphs and ultimately the human race as a whole. Rated for violence.
1. Prologue

Okay, so this fanfic is meant to be similar to a Megamorphs book in that it can be placed just about anywhere in the story line without really affecting anything before or after the fact. Similar, but not exactly the same, as it has to be some point after David. POVs will jump around, but I hope to keep them, for the most part, one character per chapter. That means there might be some short chapters, like this first one, which is more of a prologue than anything.

Disclaimer: I don't own Megamorphs or Animorphs or anything associated with them. I wish I did.

Thought-speak will be in {}

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Jake's POV

My name's Jake. I can't tell you my last name or my friends' last names or where we live, because it's too risky. See, we're in the middle of a battle with an alien race called the Yeerks. They're basically giant slugs that slide into your brain through your ear and slip into every crack and crevice, taking complete control of your body. They look through your memories and learn everything about you, so they're able to act as you would normally, making it seem like you're the same person, and all you can do is sit back and watch it happen, a slave in your own body. They've already enslaved several other races, and humans are next on the list. There's another alien race called the Andalites, who are more or less the good guys in all this.

My friends and I discovered a dying Andalite one night in an old construction site, and he gave us a power to help us fight back. The power to morph into any animal we touch. A power that the Yeerks would love to get a hold of. But if you think we're paranoid by not giving away our names and addresses, you'll think the Yeerks have a whole new brand of schizophrenia. We were recently told about a new entrance to a Yeerk pool, where they have to feed every three days and new hosts are enslaved, usually kicking and screaming the whole way. Erek, a Chee, which is pretty much a robot that looks like a metal dog when not hidden in a hologram, told us about this new opening, and the location of it was kind of scary.

See, it was behind the local police station, which meant that people could be arrested under false pretenses, brought to the station and dragged in back where the cells were, then forced through the back door and into the Yeerk pool. Our mission was, naturally, to destroy the entrance by any means necessary.

It was going well, all things considered. We figured that the Yeerks had installed Gleet Biofilters which would kill anything that was unauthorized to enter the old abandoned tool shed behind the station. Otherwise, it had seemed more or less unguarded. The plan was to destroy the shed, revealing the hole in the ground, which would force the Yeerks to bury the evidence. Because the shed had been abandoned, there was no way they could get away with building a new one. Unfortunately, the Biofilters were not the only things protecting the shed. We failed to realize that Hork-Bajir controllers- walking, talking, insanely tall living blue razors- were right inside the shed and lined up ready to attack inside the Yeerk pool.

So when my cousin, Rachel, in her elephant morph plowed through the wall, tens, no, hundreds of Hork-Bajir came swarming out of the little shed. Suddenly, we went from being in complete control of a routine mission to being a tiger, a wolf, a gorilla, an elephant, a hawk, and what appeared to be some strange cross between a blue deer and a scorpion, surrounded by hundreds of these human razors, in addition to human controllers who were now coming out with Dracon beams.

{Alright, who's been feeding the Hork-Bajir Controllers excessive amounts of wheat?} Marco, my best friend who was a gorilla at the moment attempted to joke. I assumed it was a joke from a video game, but none of us got it, and nobody cared.

As the "Fearless Leader" of our little group, I knew that I would be the one expected to come up with a plan. Expected to order everyone to safety. {Let's bail! And split up! Lose the Controllers and meet up at Cassie's barn. Tobias, distract the ones after Marco, he'll be the slowest. Ax, can you make a path for us?}

Rachel, who was big enough to stomp through the Hork-Bajir without getting critically injured, pushed through the horde of aliens and starting running for the forest, laughing maniacally. Rachel lives for danger, as Marco says, she's "Xena, warrior princess." Ax, as we call him, was the blue centaur looking thing known as an Andalite. He replied, {Yes, Prince Jake,} and began whipping that scorpion-like tail of his, taking out Hork-Bajir right and left. He couldn't take them all, but he didn't have to. Just enough for us to escape.

{Ax? Don't call me Prince. Marco? Lead the charge; you're the biggest. I'll go last.} I said dryly as the mob began to close in on us. Gorilla, wolf, alien, and tiger all made it through the swarm, but I lost track of everyone once they left. As I ran through them, I was constantly being sliced at, and one of them even got me right above my eye, rendering my right eye completely useless as blood ran into it. Somehow, miraculously, I managed to get far enough ahead of the Hork-Bajir to hide in a bush and demorph.

Once human again, I took a moment to catch my breath before straightening up and dusting myself off. If they caught up to me now, all they'd see is a weird kid in skin-tight bike shorts a t-shirt with no shoes on. Unfortunately, this wasn't a particularly good disguise, especially with the trail of blood that led to me. Concentrating on a peregrine falcon, I took a deep breath and let the DNA begin to transform me.

Unfortunately, I had been in such a hurry, I hadn't checked my surroundings very thoroughly. I knew I was ahead of the Hork-Bajir, and I was in a bush. A bush alongside a hiking trail that was on my right, the side that had been blinded when I was a tiger. As a human, I didn't even think to look that way, instead watching for Hork-Bajir Controllers that would be coming from behind me. Big mistake.

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Marco's wheat joke was a Minecraft reference, for anyone who didn't catch it. I don't own Minecraft either, by the way.


	2. Helpless

This chapter is the first chapter in Xandra's point of view. She's an OC, and she's a controller, but it's from her point of view, not the Yeerk's. To make life easier, she'll still say "I" and "my" even though she's not in control of her own body.

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Xandra's POV

Let me start of by saying that I am not myself. My body is under control of a Yeerk named Jsarti 2460, and has been since I decided out of the kindness of my heart to join "The Sharing," the supposed community service group. It is somewhat of a community service group, only it doesn't service the human race. It services Yeerks. Of course, I didn't know this when I joined, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, Jsarti was entrusted with the task of leading and maintaining order of the Controllers who were guarding the "new entrance" to the Yeerk pool. It was all a guise, really- just a trap to lure out the Andalite Bandits, who had been deemed more or less the last real threat against the invasion, as it would simply take too long for reinforcements to come from the Andalite home world. In other words, if this little trap worked; Earth was screwed. The whole thing was actually Jsarti's idea, which is why the Visser entrusted him with most of the shifts.

He decided that we should get there early just to get caught up, ask if anything unusual had happened, but we didn't really have any other plans that day, so he decided we would walk there, taking a shortcut through the woods that we'd mapped out some time ago, back when the idea first came into play. As much as I hate the Yeerks, I have to admit, if Jsarti had his own body and wasn't trying to take over the human race, I'd probably be friends with him. He was logical; unlike most who blindly followed their Visser, he came up with his own ideas and theories and tested them- whether he had permission or not. He also has a deep respect for the natural world, much like me. He's fascinated by it; the different forms of life and their unique adaptations. I think that was part of the reason why he'd chosen to walk through the forest that day rather than just drive.

I heard branches snapping, the sound of heavy footfalls. And they were coming closer, closer, closer, too fast. Impossibly fast for a human. Hoping for the advantage of camouflage on whatever was approaching, Jsarti drew his Dracon Beam and dodged behind an old oak tree, peering around it through my eyes. Then, there was an unexpected turn of fate, as we saw a tiger leap into some underbrush. {Andalite!} Jsarti told me, as if I hadn't figured out on my own that no true tiger would be running through a forest preserve like this. Things were silent for a moment. There was no way Jsarti could get a clear shot at him from this range, and if he tried to move in closer, he'd be discovered. Dracon Beam or no, one human against one tiger wasn't exactly a fair fight.

After a few moments, he got sick of waiting and crept over, Dracon Beam drawn and ready to fire, and we saw... A human. A teenage male, judging by his size and hairstyle. {That's not an Andalite,} The slug in my brain remarked, though I didn't respond. I never responded to him, really, I just didn't want to talk to something that was enslaving me. Of course, he was able to hear my thoughts, whether I was deliberately projecting them or not. The boy sat there for a few moments, trying to catch his breath, before he began to change. His arms began to elongate and droop, as if they were made of silly putty. Now, as I said, Jsarti is a logical Yeerk. He sees an opportunity, he jumps on it, with or without permission. And jump he did.

Before I was even able to grasp what was happening, my body was on top of the half-mutated teen, my ear pressed close to his. I could tell he was struggling to make a decision. Keep morphing until his ears went away? Or demorph and fight? It didn't matter. It was too late. {Jsarti, don't!} I pleaded, {Leave him alone! He's just a kid!} He wasn't listening, of course. It was getting to the point where I doubted he could hear me, almost out now. I was horrified, frozen, as I watched the teen's eyes go from desperate and frightened to momentarily void of all emotion, to smug and spiteful.

"Jsarti, don't do this," I begged, but I knew it was too little, too late, and in that moment, the fact that I could easily have attacked and stopped him in his current, defenseless state didn't even cross my mind. Of course I realized and kicked myself for this later, but in that moment, I felt utterly helpless.

{Ciao, Xandra.} Was all he replied as he completed the morph to peregrine falcon and flew off. I wanted to curl up and cry like a baby. Surely he knew where to find the other 'Andalite Bandits' now, and once he did, well... So much for Earth's only hope. But no, I couldn't let that happen. I'm not one for self sacrifice. If I see someone about to get hit by a car and think I can push them out of the way, I won't do it, it's their own damn fault for not listening when mommy said "look both ways before you cross the street!" But there's a difference between natural selection and alien infestation.

There was no way of knowing where Jsarti was going, but I had a pretty good guess. He was going to meet up with the other Andalites- provided they were, in fact, Andalites. I forced myself to get up, against the overwhelming feeling of despair and ran after the bird. I don't think he noticed me, really. Though peregrine falcons have excellent sight and hearing, he had gone so high up and I was so far behind him, I don't think he would have seen or heard me. If he had, though, he certainly didn't acknowledge my presence. Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious to everyone else that I was following a bird, as I was running right through traffic without even looking. I simply couldn't lose sight of him. If I died in a car accident at this point, what would it matter? The human race would be doomed anyway, might as well get it over with.

After a while, he dove into a cluster of trees, but surprisingly, I wasn't lost in the slightest. In fact, I knew exactly where I was. We were right by the animal welfare clinic that I used to volunteer at during the day when the parents were working and their daughter was at school. I'd met her a few times. Cassie, I think her name was. Looking up, I saw another bird of prey hovering above the barn where most of the animals were housed until they could be released. Curious to see if it was perhaps the peregrine falcon I'd lost track of earlier, I started to head over toward the barn. If I was caught I could always say things hadn't worked out with the Sharing, so I wanted to help out here some more. As I got closer, I noticed that it was a red-tailed hawk, just circling there.

Then I remembered something, where I'd seen a hawk like that before. I'd been in a cage beside the Yeerk Pool, waiting for Jsarti to finish feeding so he could enslave me again. There'd been a raid involving the Andalite Bandits, but they'd had to flee. I don't think anyone else noticed, but I noticed a hawk flying out of the cave, long after the two-hour limit I'd heard about. A red-tailed hawk. This was no coincidence, I decided, if Jsarti was coming here, and the hawk was here, this had to be where they were meeting. I had to warn them. Breaking into a run, I headed for the barn, my sense of duty above all else.


	3. What to do?

So I got several reviews, and I want to thank everyone for that. A few questions from Sarah1281 that I'll go ahead an answer, in order.

Why didn't the Yeerk kill her?- He saw no logical reason to at the time. Jsarti and Xandra have a deep respect for one another, though they're technically not allies, because they have similar interests. As stated, if the situations were different, they would likely have been friends. On some level, he probably thought her hopelessness might drive her back to the Yeerk pool.

Why didn't she knock him out?- My bad! I should have been a bit more specific, I suppose. I'll go back and fix it after I post this chapter, but so you don't have to reread, the answer is: because she was stunned. She hadn't been expecting Jsarti to do any of that until it was happening. She was so surprised and frightened that it was hard enough to keep from wetting her pants, let alone act against him. In this state of mind, the thought that "Oh, hey, he's still vulnerable! I should attack him!" would have gone right over her head.

As for shortening the paragraphs, yeah, I'll work on that. I didn't really realize they were so long until I looked back. My bad!

Credibility: Yes, that's an obvious problem. Unfortunately, so is time. With or without Jake, they'll have to make a big decision without much time to think about or discuss it. Trust her and be potentially screwed, hope that Jake will eventually come back and just got distracted, or realize that what she's saying may very well be true- Jake's either dead or enslaved- and that they're screwed, so they should just give up. What they do and why is because of their characterization.

Jsarti's intelligence- Not the issue here, chief. What he's doing and why will come up later, as the story unfolds. Until then, all I'm going to say is: yes, he knows what happened to the last yeerk, but if he doesn't get caught, he won't have that problem. He didn't fly all the way to the barn, just close enough that Xandra knew where she was and where he was going. Naturally, Tobias would have been looking for him, so timing and distance was key. Because he knows Tobias and birds of prey in general well enough to know what their limits are, he could gauge this rather easily.

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Marco's POV

We'd all made it back to Cassie's barn safely, thankfully. Everyone except Jake, that is. Tobias was outside keeping an eye out for him, but none of us were particularly hopeful. After all, he'd been one tiger against a swarm of Hork Bajir, and more might have been nearby. None of us wanted to think about that, though, which was why we were all so quiet. See, this is the time where I'd usually crack a joke to clear the tension, but there was nothing funny about this situation. Our fearless leader, my best friend, could be dead- or worse.

Cassie was distracting herself by tending to a raccoon and Rachel was helping while Ax and I were just staring at the ground in silence. He was in his human morph, as the Andalite form was a bit more than frightening to the animals, but surprisingly, he wasn't talking. See, Andalites don't have mouths, so when he's able to speak out loud like we do, he likes to play with words, make different sounds with them. That would be something we consider normal for Ax. Silent human Ax is not a good thing.

After when felt like years, Tobias finally announced, {Hey guys? There's a lady in the yard staring right at me. It's kinda creeping me out.} There was a pause for a moment, then he said, {She's running toward the barn,}

"Act natural," Rachel commanded. I think she felt like she had to take Jake's place as the leader for the time being. Partially because she's his cousin, but also because she's become the insane "Xena, Warrior Princess," as I call her. "We're trying to figure out math homework." She added. Thankfully, we had left our backpacks in the barn, as we had on several occasions, just in case someone walked in on a meeting. Like now. Everyone pulled out binders, including Ax, who was borrowing Jake's homework. I envied Jake, knowing how advanced Andalites are, particularly in the math and science fields. Ax had probably learned what we're learning before he was three.

Suddenly, there was a girl who didn't appear to be much older than we were, standing in the barn doors. I didn't get a good look at her face at first because she doubled over, panting. After a few moments to catch her breath, she straightened up, looking around at all of us with piercing green eyes. Brushing a lock of wavy strawberry blonde hair off of her cheek, she apologized, "Sorry, I'm out of shape... And a bit speechless. Not every day you get to meet the 'Andalite Bandits."

If words could only describe Rachel and Cassie's expressions. Ax, well, he doesn't really know how to express human emotions, so he was just Ax, but I'm sure my jaw was just as close to the ground as Rachel's. How Tobias managed to stay in the air is completely beyond me. This new girl looked like she was either about to burst into laughter or start crying. Finally, Cassie seemed to get over the initial shock and asked, "I'm sorry, I think you're in the wrong place. We're just trying to get some math homework done."

The girl shook her head, "Please don't make me look like an idiot, there's no time. You're all in trouble," She warned, her face grim.

Knowing that we couldn't let our secret out that easily, I asked, rolling my eyes, "What kind of trouble? Timmy in the well?"

"Something like that," She replied bluntly, something I hadn't been expecting. "Look, I don't blame you for being secretive, but I've got you figured out. That hawk outside? I remember it. I saw it in a raid the Bandits did in the Yeerk pool, but he was in there for way more than the supposed two hour limit... So he must be trapped that way... And, counting all of you, it's the right number to be them. There are five of you here, including the hawk, and the sixth one, the tiger..."

"Slow down," Rachel demanded. It was obvious now that this girl knew what she was talking about, and if she knew something about Jake, we had to get it out of her. "Who are you, and what are you talking about?"

Fidgeting uncomfortable, the girl replied, "My name's Xandra. I used to come and volunteer here while they were off working and their daughter was at school. I don't know where the other Bandit is. He could be anywhere by now, but he's probably nearby... Let me explain what happened." She quickly told us all that had happened with the transfer of the Yeerk and how she'd followed Jake's peregrine falcon here.

If you ask me, she seemed a bit paranoid; her eyes constantly darting around the room like she was expecting a sniper to pop out at any given second. "Please, you have to believe me!" She begged, actually getting down on her knees with her hands clapped together in front of her.

Let me just say, when a cute girl like her is desperate enough to beg on her knees on a dirt floor that's probably more animal droppings than dirt, I can't just look the other way. Apparently Tobias agreed, because after a few moments of awkward silence, he said to Cassie, Ax, Rachel and I, {Jake's still missing. We can't count on him to tell us what to do with her. She knows too much, just like David, but unlike him, she came to us, not the other way around. It could be a trap, but even if it isn't, we aren't going to be able to bring Jake back by wishing for it, and if he is a Controller...} He let the thought trail off there. We all knew what would happen if Jake were a Controller and we didn't get him back in time. No more Animorphs. No more freedom.

Cassie, Rachel, Ax and I all looked around at one another, exchanging questioning glances. Finally, Rachel, in typical Rachel style, stood up and said, "Let's do it."

"This is insane!" I complained, "What if she turns out to be another David?"

"What if the Yeerk gives us up?" Rachel countered, "Either we assume she's lying and sit on our hands, hoping Jake will come back, or we trust her and possibly save him. Either way there's a chance we're going down. I'd rather do it fighting than waiting for death to come."

Cassie sighed and said, "She's right. We have to at least try."

Xandra, who looked utterly confused, as she clearly hadn't heard what Tobias had said, finally spoke, "I don't know who these people are, David and Jake, but I have an idea, if you'll hear me out." When nobody moved to silence her, she continued, "There's a new member meeting at the Sharing tonight. New members are taken down to the Yeerk Pool while the everyone else listens to the latest news, plans, and orders from the Visser. Jsarti will be there. He has to give a report about the trap, since it was his idea and he missed showing up for duty."

Running her fingers through her hair, she added, "Jsarti hates Visser Three with a passion, mostly because he thinks the Visser isn't worthy of his title. I'm not sure if you've heard of this or how much you know, but not long before the lot of you arrived, he killed an Andalite Prince, Prince Elfangor. Jsarti thinks the Visser was an idiot for killing such a vastly outnumbered and powerful opponent. It wouldn't have been too difficult to capture him alive and get the great Andalite warrior Elfangor under Yeerk control. Instead, he was praised for the slaughter of what could have been a powerful ally."

None of us were expecting Elfangor to come up in this conversation. Especially not like this, talking about how he should have been a controller. I was sort of surprised nobody said anything, particularly Ax or Tobias, who were related to the alien. But they were silent and let her continue. "Jsarti hopes to take over the title of Visser Three. He's wanted that for quite some time. This is an opportunity for him, see. He wouldn't come out and tell the other Yeerks about you. Instead, he'd use his host to lure you all into a trap, where you could all be captured alive. Think about it. A Yeerk who not only managed to enslave one of the Andalite bandits who have plagued Visser Three for so long, but was able to catch all of you alive? There's no way he could resist that."

I don't think anyone really thought about it. It was bad enough that she was telling us that Visser Three should have taken Elfangor prisoner; we didn't want to think about Jake potentially turning all of us into slaves. Thankfully, we had Cassie, who questioned, "If he's going to try to trap us, why isn't he here trying to set one up?"

This question seemed to catch Xandra off guard, as it took her a moment before she replied honestly, "I don't know. My best guess is that he knows all of you better than I since he's in that guy's head, so there might be something making him more cautious than usual. Or maybe he is here in a small morph, waiting for you to come up with a plan which he can reveal and use against you. Anything is possible, but he knows he has to act fast before you have the chance to come up with something, so my point is, he'll probably be at the meeting tonight, and he'll probably reveal what he wants to do _tonight._"

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Reviews and comments are loved as always. I fixed the earlier chapters, so if you get the chance, please tell me if you think they seem less wall-like and if the scene with Jake, Xandra, and Jsarti makes a bit more sense.


	4. Xandra's Plan

More reviews!

xMissyMaex: Thank you! Input is much appreciated.

HAPPY: Yes, I think I can do that. In fact, I just did. :P

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Rachel's POV

"Sounds like we've got plenty of time. Let's make some popcorn, kick back, and watch the world end." Marco said jokingly. I shot him a look of disapproval, though he was obviously right. If what Xandra was saying was true, we didn't even have enough time to ask the Chee for help.

"You were saying you had an idea earlier," Cassie reminded, looking Xandra in the eye as the girl stood and brushed herself off. I don't know why she bothered. Her jeans were bleached, torn, and frayed far beyond what could be considered fashionable. If anything, the dirt made it look better, not worse.

The strawberry blonde opened her mouth to speak, then shrieked and ducked suddenly as Tobias swooped in about a foot over her head before perching on one of the rafters. {Sorry, didn't mean to scare you.} He said, preening his feathers.

Straightening up, she shook her head, "It's okay..." Then, with a small smile, she added, "You spoke."

{Of course. You said yourself that I'm one of them trapped in morph.} Tobias was staring right at her with those fierce hawk eyes, and she looked oddly at ease. I think that was the first time I realized there was something seriously wrong with that girl.

"You weren't talking before, so I thought I might have offended you by bringing up... Well, what happened to you." Xandra said softly.

{I love being a hawk,} Tobias assured her, {Besides, I have the ability to morph again. It's a long, complicated story that I still don't really understand myself, but I can. So, what's your plan?}

Her face growing serious once more, she replied, "Well, I could go to the meeting and tell all of you what they said. They sift known Controllers from civilians at the door, and, just in case, ask for a password before we enter the meeting room itself. I'm a known Controller, and I know the password, so they'd let me in without question. They wouldn't even know I was free unless and until after Jsarti speaks his name, and even then it won't register immediately since the guards don't really have a guest list."

Ax was the first to question this plan. "How will we know you're being honest?" He paused, considering, "Nest. Hoooonest. Beeeeing Hoooonest."

Knowing Ax would only be further distracted by "mouth sounds" as he calls them, I said, "Ax, demorph." He opened his mouth, then closed it, looking a bit sad as he began to return to his natural Andalite form.

Marco, having seen this and knowing as well of the rest of us what the alien had been going to say, chided playfully, "Don't call her Princess Xena."

Well, I guess I really was acting like Jake. "Shut up, Marco." I told him, though we needed the humor, however dry it may have been. We all missed and worried about Jake, but having Marco make stupid jokes brought some sense of normalcy.

I noticed Xandra straighten up when Ax became more Andalite than human. It was probably drilled into Jsarti's head to give Andalites the utmost respect, as the Andalite he was most likely to see was Visser Three. I realized then that he must have been with her for a long time, if his morals were so etched into her mind, provided she was free as she claimed. She relaxed a bit when he finished morphing, as the differences became more clear.

"I understand your unwillingness to trust me," Xandra said, "But I don't see any other choice. I mean, they're constantly on the lookout for anything inhuman in case it's an Andalite in morph, so you couldn't come with me..." After a moment of thought, she corrected, "Unless... Unless you morphed bugs and hid in my clothes, out of sight. Meetings are usually only about an hour and a half, tops."

"That could be risky. On the off chance someone noticed, they would know something was up with so many bugs on her." Cassie pointed out.

Nodding in agreement, I said, "Alright, one of us goes with then, and everyone else can provide backup. We'll morph gulls and hang out around the building." With an apologetic look at Tobias, I added, "Birds of prey would be too obvious. Gulls can go anywhere without drawing attention."

"I call not it." Marco said almost immediately. I wasn't surprised in the least.

{I think Ax should go, actually.} Tobias suggested, {If he has to demorph, he has more natural weapons than the rest of us, and they'll see an Andalite rather than a human or hawk.}

Glancing over at the Andalite, I asked, "Is that alright with you, Ax?"

{It would be an honor,} He replied. I think he meant that doing something useful to Jake, whom he considered his "Prince," would be honorable, but then, I don't have the best understanding of alien honor.

"It's settled, then. Xandra, what time is this meeting?" I asked, looking back to the girl. It may not have been much of a plan, but it was something. At least we were doing this much, rather than twiddling our thumbs while the Yeerks planned out how to kill us.

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Rachel's POV is hard to write from, so I did my best. Anyone with suggestions to make this chapter in particular better, I'm open to them.


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